Blackout - Shadows

It was a dark and stormy night.

Don't get me wrong. Dark and stormy nights are usually pretty fun. You can listen to the rain as it cradles you to sleep, or count the seconds between bolts of lightning and crashes of thunder. When you're on the road touring, it's nice to know that some things don't change, no matter what continent you're on. Even if you are in a stiff hotel bed with lumpy pillows, you can close your eyes and listen to the rain, and pretend it's falling off into your green gutters at home.

But tonight, it had put the power out. After flipping the lights experimentally, but to no avail, I had settled down to wait it out. So I sat in the dark, a true dark, at the small wood-colored plastic desk the hotel put in every room. I ran my hands once or twice through my sweat-caked, newly blonde hair and sighed. I had wanted to take a shower after the show, but it was too dangerous to do so without electricity. I wished I had brought a flashlight, or even candles or something...

A knock on my door startled me. I rose easily, and put my ear to the door. No use in trying the peephole, after all. "Who is it?" I called through the heavy oak. A crash of thunder.

"Me. Can I come in?"

Daniel. A smile flitted across my face. Lightning slashed the sky as I unbolted the door and saw his silhouette standing there, one hand resting on the wood of the doorframe as a guide. "Hey," I said quietly, putting a hand out to his shoulder. He jumped a little at my touch. My eyes strained in the darkness to see what was wrong, but the lightning was long gone. Daniel groped for my arm like a blind man, and I led him carefully into the room, knowing the map of it by heart. I led him to the bed, set him there, and extracted my limb to go shut the door. When he heard the door shut, he called out.

"Darren?" He sounded panicked, and unsure.

"Here, Dan," I offered, coming back over to him, and talking, so he would know my movements. "I'm here. What's wrong?" I knelt in front of him, my hands on his knees.

"The electricity..." He answered, his voice tight. I frowned to myself as the thunder shot through the room. I could feel him jerk under my hands at the sound.

"What about it?" I asked soothingly. My calm voice. Used for calming panicked band mates and temper tantrum-ing toddlers.

He whimpered in response, and a split second later I caught a freeze frame of him in the lightning, looking more scared than anything I had ever seen. My frown deepened. His whole body caved in on itself, his chin touching his chest, lanky arms wrapped around his torso. He was leaning towards me, finding comfort in my presence. That was when I noticed something else, too.

He was holding a candle.

"Of course..." I murmured to myself. "How could I have been so stupid?" I rose quietly and patted his knees. "Don't move. I'm just going into the bathroom for a second, okay? I'll be right back, I promise."

Letting my right hand run along the far wall I knew led to the bathroom, I walked carefully until I felt the door frame. Then it was a short trip to the sink, where I found what I wanted. The trip back was more tedious, and I ended up tripping on the bed and landing on the floor by Daniel's feet with a quiet "Ooft."

I could feel Daniel spasm in surprise and fear. I laid my right hand on his knee again, and let it grope up his arm. I held him by the elbow. "Dan, let me have the candle, okay?"

Suddenly I could feel the wax in my hand, still warm. It must've gone out on his way here. I struck a match from the matchbook I'd fetched from the bathroom, and the flame brightened the room before guttering into a humble burn. I touched it to the wick of the fat candle, and set it on a small bedside table. It was shoddy illumination, but at least I could see now.

"There, that's better, eh?" I offered him a crooked smile and he looked up at me, stricken.

"I'm so sorry," he offered, as I climbed off my knees and sat on the bed next to him, draping a comforting arm over his shoulders. "I just...I was on my way to the lobby to find out about the power, and the candle went out, and I panicked."

I nodded, studying his tear-streaked face. It had slipped my mind until I saw the candle that Daniel was terrified of the dark. His one phobia. "Well, you're okay now, yes?"

He nodded weakly, resting his head on my shoulder. I was surprised, but I wrapped my arm tighter around him. Lately, with the tour drawing to an end and tensions running high among the band, Daniel had been distant and cold. I had been the same, of course. We were all living in the future...thinking of our new plans. I had expected Daniel to thank me and leave after I'd forced back his fears.
I absent-mindedly began to stroke his hair, where it met the back of his tanned neck. Daniel had a calming style, all of his own, one of the things I loved most about him. Everything from his hair to his clothes was relaxed and careless. He sighed under my touch, shifting quietly away from me. I felt a pang of disappointment. He would leave, now. Go back and hide in his own room.

"Dar-" He looked up at me, eyes shining in the flickering candlelight. "I can't go back there."

"Your room?" I asked softly. "Why not?"

"It's horrible in there. It's dark everywhere. I can't stand it." He looked desperate, like he was about to be punished and couldn't think of an excuse to save himself. "Please don't send me back."

I looked at him curiously. "Send you...Dan, why would I do that?"

He ducked his head. "All you do lately..."

I felt a pang of guilt. "Hey," I said, shifting to face him. "I won't send you back, okay?"

He glanced up at me under the fall of his hair. "Promise?"

I grinned despite myself. Cupping the warm skin of his face with one hand, I drew him closer. "Promise," I breathed, and touched my lips to his forehead. I could hear his whooshing exhale, and he drew a shuddery breath.

"Darren, don't-"

I kissed his cheek, his jaw, tracing my way back to his ear. "Don't what?" I asked, pulling him closer to me. He managed to get one protesting hand between us, pushing on my chest.

"Don't do this if you're not going to-"

I pulled away to look him in the eyes. He was scared. Still. "Daniel," I whispered. "I'm sorry I've been such an ass these past few weeks. Let me make it up to you." I planted a soft kiss on his lips, and I could feel some of his tension drain, and his protesting hand curled into my tee-shirt, twisting the fabric. A crackle of thunder erupted from the sky, reminding me of the storm outside. The rain patted softly against the window and I pressed my lips again to the younger man's, savoring his taste silently. His smooth mouth opened to me, and I deepened our kiss gently, swallowing his sound of surprise. I pulled back once more, his lower lip flush, and his expression startled.

"Okay?" I asked. His gaze focused on me abruptly.

"Okay," he echoed, and attacked my mouth with the fire and frustration and fear of the past hours. I made small grunt of surprise, but yielded to his mouth, my eyes sliding shut at the sensation of his lips upon mine. God, his mouth. And suddenly his hands, too. They were everywhere at once, leaving little firemarks of passage. Lightning lanced the sky, and I realized in the back of my mind that the storm must have been moving off. And then Daniel was shifting over me, blocking the candle so that he looked like some righteous angel, his features hidden in darkness.

His mouth traced the shadows on my skin and I shivered in delight, feeling myself drifting down onto the bed, his weight secure on me. One hand kneaded the flesh at my waist, his lean legs straddling my hips and rocking into me, sparking a fresh course of arousal down my body. His lips pooled at my throat, licking the dip of my shoulder.

"Dan-" I ground out. "Wait-"

He planted a solid kiss on my shoulder, and looked up. "What's wrong?" He asked tentatively, bracing himself to be sent back. Sent away.

"Nothing," I panted, sweeping some errant strands of sandy blonde hair out of his eyes. I struggled up into a sitting position, and he shifted his weight onto my upper legs, looking confused. "I want this to be for you, Dan. Tonight is for you. Just you."

"But you-"

I kissed him sweetly. "Never mind about me," I whispered. And before he could register my movements, I had him on his back, mirroring the position he held me in moments before. I littered his skin with kisses as soft as the rain falling outside, pressing myself against him. God, it felt good to touch. It had been so long since I'd seen him like this, since I'd allowed myself to recognize how I'd been ignoring him.

I smiled as he responded, straining against my mouth, and I soon relieved him of his shirt. I met his lips, his eyes sliding blissfully shut a second before my own. I could feel his contented sigh cut off abruptly as I slid a dull fingernail of the flat terrain of his nipple, his noise transforming into a strangled moan. I fingered the nub again, raising it, and silently relishing how his back arched into my touch.

I attacked his other nipple with my tongue, and his suddenly free mouth groaned in approval.

"Darren, jesus..." He managed, a hand raveling itself into my hair. Not pushing me, just resting there. Daniel, ever the man of indecision. I smiled against his skin and laved slowly, feeling the hardened flesh pebble under my ministrations.

As all conscious thought fled, Daniel's words shifted into inarticulate murmurs of adoration. I stacattoed kisses down his side, fingers sliding symmetrically on his other hip. When I met fabric, I looked up at him. His head rose from the mattress, meeting my stare with an expression of desperation.

"You're far too clothed," I announced, tugging with a hooked index finger at his track pants.

"That's horrible," he panted.

"Mm," I mused, glancing downward at the offending waistband. Under the material, cast in shades of dark blue from the dim light, I could see the rise of his arousal. I could hear his breathing catch slightly as he realized what I was examining.

I slid the rest of my fingers between his warm skin and the clothing, pulling down sharply. The pants were disposed of, the cloth whispering in protest as it left his body.

If were those pants, I wouldn't want to leave either.

I smirked at Daniel. "Much better, yes?" My fingers slid up the golden expanse of his thigh, marveling at his total lack of tanlines. "And no underwear. Should I be shocked?"

"You can be anythin' you damn well please," Daniel answered, his voice heavy with arousal. Watching the activity at his groin, I could only be reminded of my own painful erection...but tonight was for him, I reminded myself. Just him. I stroked the juncture of hip and thigh, tracing small creases in his skin. "Just...don't stop..."

I smiled. "Wouldn't dream of it," I undertoned, pressing my lips to his warm, soft skin on the inside of his thigh. I could feel his shiver as I slid my tongue up...

There's a reason they say the tongue is the strongest muscle in the body.

The hiss that pierced the room when I took Daniel's length into my mouth lit the room, despite the blackout. Every sound of desperation coursed down his body, transferring over into my own satisfaction.

My fingers spidered out to anchor him to the bed, and I let my mouth rise and fall steadily, listening to his frantic restraint. Thunder shook the room with distant reverberations that I could feel through the bed. It had been too long since we'd been alone like this, I reminded myself, the thought only making me more determined to finish this for him.

When I increased my pressure, his slim hips jumped past my barrier of hands. His murmured encouragement became a hum in the back of my mind, focusing on the one point that I knew he needed, sweeping my tongue, coaxing, until he jerked once more and threw himself over the edge of pleasure.

The lights exploded overhead with Daniel.

The enlightened silence was marked only by heavy breathing, Daniel's mind finding his footing. "That was..." He attempted, his voice dry and husky. I wiped errant drops of his sensuality from my fingers and managed to ignore my own raging arousal long enough to meet his mouth in a flushed embrace.

"Thank you," he said sincerely as soon as he broke from our kiss.

I smiled at him. "Still afraid of the dark?"

"It's not dark anymore," he reasoned. "But no. Quite frankly, I don't think I am."

My smile broadened. "Good. Now shall we take a shower?"

His lips quirked upward. "We could, but..."

I frowned. "But what?"

He winked. "I'm afraid of water."